Roman stood still, wide chest heaving in a quick rhythm. His once honeyed complexion was now a pale marble, with delicate blue veins lacing his skin. His black eyes slid to me. The audience was still cheering, but the sound was muted to a distant roar in my ears, my attention narrowed in on the nephilim.
‘Roman?’
His stare licked my skin with heat and want. What he wanted though, I wasn’t so sure. On instinct, I squinted and tried to pull his aura into focus. While I couldn’t read a nephilim’s aura, I had to try, to see if something had changed.
The air around Roman’s head blinked before a screaming vision of white and gold flooded my eyes. The colour swirled and changed, ripping apart in slashes of crimson and black. The image was beautiful and horrible at the same time, dark beauty and consuming madness. This, I knew, was the aura of a berserker. The stories of them were legendary; their incredible strength, bottomless rage, and insatiable bloodlust.
The vision blinked out and I knew Roman was gone. The one who’d said he loved me, who didn’t want anything from me, who didn’t have any agenda. The one I'd grown to love and trust was now lost to me. He was something else now. Poisoned by my blood, he’d become a monster, close to being consumed by madness.
‘I'm sorry,’ I said.
Roman’s eyes followed the tears that fell down my cheeks. ‘For what?’
I gave a startled sob and hope shot through me. If Roman still recognised me, maybe he was still whole. He stretched a hand to me, then frowned when he noticed his skin. He flexed his fingers before anguish filled his eyes. His body jerked as something heaved under his back, twisting his shoulders out of shape.
‘It’s all right.’ I took a step towards him. ‘I'm here.’
I wanted to call him my love, but the words got stuck in my throat. His transformation wasn’t finished. My fingers reached for the throwing knife at the back of my belt. ‘Everything is going to be all right.’
‘The hero is tormented.’ Kebble’s voice broke through the moment. ‘His berserker rage will soon know no bounds. Will he destroy the female Witch Hunter? Can he stop himself, as he loses his hold on his sanity? And what monster will he become, now the blood of a Witch Hunter runs through him?’
Roman doubled over, grabbing his stomach, his breath choppy. The swollen muscles in his back shifted and bowed, and he gave a cry of despair.
I palmed my knife and steeled my heart, watching the air ripple around Roman. A faint whine of otherworldly shrieking rose around us and it surged through me like a pulse of power, rising up from the ley-lines.
Roman cried out. There was a low, crunching sound, then the flesh on his back burst outward and jutting bones rose, covered in slick, bloody feathers. Roman screamed as the bones stretched, spanning wide. The knife fell from my hand and prayers to Kianna spilled from my lips as I watched Roman’s newborn wings shift and sway. The crowd had fallen into a shocked silence. Roman heaved in a laboured breath, then raised his head, his eyes burning chips of coal.
Through the rushing sound of panic in my ears, I heard Grogan shouting orders. Guess he knew a real money-spinner when he saw one. His shouting penetrated Roman’s daze and he looked up at the man responsible for this. Responsible for everything.
Roman’s muscles bunched, cords in his neck tensing, and with a rush of air, he launched himself at the nearest cage door and pulled.
Chapter 46
The bars groaned under Roman’s hands. Iron squealed and the door hinges kinked inwards. Deckkart and Grogan shot to their feet, and Reapers surged around the cage, flintlocks raised.
‘Don’t kill it,’ Grogan shouted. ‘I need it alive.’
The door came loose in a shriek of metal and Roman tossed it aside. Underneath the blood, his wings looked to be a pale colour and they folded neatly behind him as he vaulted through the doorway. Despite Grogan’s warning, some pistols barked shots, but all missed their target, pinging against the metal bars.
Defying gravity, Roman jumped upwards to the platform, feet landing light, wings flicking out and shaking loose droplets of blood. Grogan stumbled back, face ashen. Seth moved in front of Deckkart in a shielding gesture, while Kebble cowered behind Nicola. I couldn’t see Maya, and figured she was smart enough to leave while she could.
Seth stepped forward, saying something to Roman, then nodded towards Grogan. Whatever Seth was trying to sell though, Roman wasn’t buying. Moving unnaturally fast, he grabbed Seth’s front and hurled him off the platform. Seth landed on the floor by the cage heavily, head bouncing off the ground.
Grogan came in and swung a punch at Roman, and the blow landed solidly on the Regulator’s jaw. Roman’s head barely moved. Grogan looked a little taken aback, then he shoved Deckkart in front of him, and ran, scrambling over chairs to get away. One of Roman’s hands wrapped around the Half-Skull Man’s neck and squeezed.
Footsteps sounded behind me. Before I could turn, an arm wrapped around my throat, cutting off my air and Maya’s voice was harsh in my ear.
‘This is for the death of my girl.’
I ducked my chin into the crook of her elbow, and sank my teeth into tender flesh. Biting down, I tasted the sickly sweet succubus blood. Maya howled and her hold loosened. Grabbing one of her fingers, I snapped it sideways, then twisted out of her weakened hold. Shifting behind her, I pulled out my garrotte wire. Maya tried to turn and face me, but I'd already looped the wire around her neck. I shoved a knee in her back and fell, using my body as a dead weight and Maya fell with me. My vision hazed into grey as I strained, feeling Maya’s back arch and her limbs flail.
Around us, I was dimly aware of screaming and stamping feet. I could hear someone roaring, someone that might have been Roman. Then some of the grey haze leaked from my vision, and I realised Maya wasn’t fighting anymore, and blood had soaked my hands. With effort, I unclenched my fingers and pushed Maya’s body off me, the garrotte still deep in her neck.
Chapter 47
Leg dragging, I hurried over to Crowhurst and pressed two bloodstained fingers against his hairy neck, checking for a pulse. He hadn’t reverted to human form, and that worried me. His pulse was strong under my fingertips, but he was still out cold.
Looking around, I realised most of the audience had fled. The platform was deserted, and Roman was gone. There were no Reapers about either. I guessed they had sensed which way the wind was blowing and split. Elmore Deckkart was lying on the ground by the cage. His head had been ripped off and it sat beside his body, eyes wide and looking a little shocked. Seth sat nearby, holding one bloodied hand to his head.
I bent to take a wheellock holstered at Maya’s belt and nearly fell over, head spinning. Sucking in deep breath, I straightened and tucked the pistol into the back of my belt, then stepped out of the cage through the doorway Roman had ripped open.
I needed to sit down. Hellfires, I needed to lie down. Take a real long nap with some pain relief in the form of strong liquor. After all, it wasn’t every day you saw… Well… I wasn’t sure what I'd just seen. I also knew, whichever way Roman had gone, I had no hope of catching up with him.
Seth staggered towards me. Blood caked one side of his face, but his eyes were focused.
‘Want to tell me what the hell you’re doing here?’ I demanded.
‘I was working undercover.’ Seth stopped near me, and leant against the cage.
Running that logic through my mind, I found it sort of checked out. I wasn’t completely buying it, but it answered some of my more immediate questions.
‘Which way did Roman go?’ I asked.
‘Back down the tunnel, chasing Reapers,’ Seth answered.
‘What the hell happened to him?’
‘You did.’ Seth’s voice was brutal. ‘Your blood happened to him.’
I rubbed a trembling hand over my face, pushing hair out of my eyes that was damp with sweat. ‘Have you seen anything like that before?’
‘No, and I've seen quite a bit in my time.’ Seth nodded at something beh
ind me. ‘You might want to check out what your sweet little Nicola is doing.’
Turning, I saw Nicola by the entrance. Her hands were wrapped around a flintlock and Ivor Grogan stood in her line of fire. He was talking to his daughter in a low, earnest voice, like his life depended on it. From the look on Nicola’s face, it probably did.
I hurried to her as fast as I could. ‘You don’t want to do that, Nicola.’
The gun wavered, but Nicola didn’t lower it. ‘He’s responsible for killing Tarn. You were right, Lora. I should have listened to you.’
I stopped a few paces from her, keeping my voice calm. ‘If you kill your father, it’s going to haunt you the rest of your days.’
‘It will haunt me if I don’t.’ Nicola’s voice boiled with rage. ‘He needs to die.’
‘You listened to me once, Nicola.’ I inched closer. ‘You trusted me once. Now trust me this one more time. Please. For the life of your child.’
‘Child?’ Grogan’s intake of breath sounded pained. ‘You’re with child?’
Agony passed over Nicola’s face and tears streaked fresh lines through her ruined makeup. ‘That’s right, and you killed the father.’
Grogan swallowed his disgusted look, probably because he’d just realised his daughter had more than enough reason to kill him. Seth stepped past me, hands raised to show he wasn’t armed. I wanted to warn him to get back, but held my tongue, not wanting to crowd Nicola. Whatever he was going to do, he’d just better do it right.
‘Nicola, you know me. You know I work for the City Watch.’ Seth sounded calm, in control. ‘You can trust me. Your father will pay for everything he’s done, but not by your hand. That judgement is not for you to decide.’
‘You’re lying,’ Nicola cried.
‘No,’ Seth said. ‘I'm not. I've been working undercover to bring Elmore Deckkart to justice for his crimes. Your father was also part of my investigation for his increasing role within the Reapers.’
Grogan looked furious. ‘I knew it. I didn’t buy your story about being a city official on the take, not for a second.’ He sneered at Seth. ‘You think you’re going to last two seconds on the streets, Hallow? You’re a dead man.’
Nicola gave a small sob and the flintlock wavered. I pulled out Maya’s gun to cover Grogan, so he didn’t try to make a run for it. Seth reached out tentatively for the weapon in Nicola’s shaking hands.
‘Good girl.’ Seth’s voice was silky smooth. I registered the snake charmer tone a moment too late. He took the flintlock from Nicola, hooked his finger around the trigger and shot Grogan in the face. The bark of the pistol bounced around the room and Grogan’s head snapped back, before he crumpled to the ground. Nicola screamed and threw herself at her father’s limp body, punching him. I swung my wheellock to aim at Seth.
‘Care to explain?’ I asked coldly.
Seth threw the smoking flintlock on the ground. ‘She was right and you know it. Ivor Grogan was a monster that deserved to die.’
‘Undercover, hey? It was all pretend, hey?’ I drawled. ‘What about the assassin who attacked Nicola in her dressing room at the Iron Horse? Grogan implied someone was trying to scare him off some big time business deal. You sent the assassin, didn’t you.’
‘Nicola was never in any real danger.’ Seth shrugged, not bothering to deny it. ‘He was someone from out of town I hired to give her a scare, that was all. I was trying to rattle Grogan’s cage, maybe force him to make a bad move. I had no idea you’d be there.’
‘Your hired goon tried to kill me,’ I said.
‘I'm sorry, Lora. Again, I had no idea. The situation clearly got out of hand.’
‘So this was all part of an act? You campaigning for the head position of the Reaper Street Gang, while secretly preparing a case to tear them down? What a relief. Now the City Watch can dismantle the Reapers, leaving the streets of Harken City safe for her citizens once again.’
‘In an ideal world, Lora.’ Seth’s smile was sly. ‘In an ideal world.’
‘What’s the plan now?’
His smile slipped, eyes dropping to the wheellock in my hand. ‘Could you point that some place other than at me, please?’
‘After you tell me why you murdered Ivor Grogan in cold blood.’
‘You’re hardly an angel yourself.’
‘No. I'm only half angel. Now spill.’
Seth ran a hand over his goatee and gave a long sigh. ‘You have to understand something, Lora. Working for the City Watch is a thankless job, and I'm a man with expensive tastes. It was time for me to step up in the ranks. I just couldn’t decide which rank I wanted to pursue. You might say, I was keeping my options open.’
‘Doesn’t sound like a hard choice to me.’
‘Then you’re not seeing all the angles.’
‘Did you know I was going to be in the cage here tonight?’
‘No.’ Seth’s tawny eyes darkened. ‘I would never have put you in that position.’
His words rang true, and I finally lowered the wheellock. We both looked at Nicola, who was now huddled in a heap by her father, sobbing into her hands. Neither of us moved to help her.
‘You’re going to do something for me,’ I told Seth.
His eyes turned wary. ‘Anything. You know that.’
‘We’re going to find Roman, and you’re going to take him to Casper to get better.’ My eyes narrowed on him. ‘You’re going to help me, because you know he can be saved. You’ve helped nephilim in the past. Now you’ll help him.’
‘You ask too much of me,’ Seth said. His head shifted back and I caught a glint of something dangerous staring back at me. I realised, in this moment, I was seeing Seth for what he really was. A man with no soul.
‘You want Roman dead, because he doesn’t fit into the scenario you’ve got worked out.’ My voice was even and strong, and I was proud of myself. ‘You’ve got this idea we’re going to be some sort of power couple. You want what was stripped from you when you were hellspawn. You want a return to glory.’ I shook my head. ‘It won’t happen, Seth. Not now, not ever.’
‘You sound very sure of your theories on me.’ The look in Seth’s eyes cloaked itself, and his chin inched down a fraction. ‘However, we need to focus on the more immediate problem. Roman doesn’t need a saviour. He needs to be caught and put down.’ Seth said it like it was the most reasonable thing in the world. ‘The Regulator you knew is gone, and you can’t bring him back.’
‘You didn’t think that about Casper,’ I reminded him.
‘Casper didn’t have giant fucking wings.’
‘We’re going to try anyway.’
Seth folded his arms, frowning. ‘If I refuse?’
‘Then you’ll break things between us beyond repair.’ I tried to sound as sure as I felt. Tried not to sound scared and desperate. ‘We’ve got a long history together, and you’ve always told me you’ll be there for me.’ I swallowed past a dry throat. ‘I'm begging you, Seth.’
A few heartbeats passed before Seth unfolded his arms with a resigned look.
‘Fine. I'll help you.’ He raised a hand to lightly touch the bloodied side of his head. ‘We’ll take Roman to the Outlands. But you have to promise me something.’
‘What?’
‘You have to give him the space he needs to heal. I've seen nephilim struggle with this sickness and it can take a long time to recover. You’ll just be a distraction he doesn’t need.’
I was about to agree to his terms, when a thought slammed into me like a brick between the eyes and I spoke without thinking. ‘Which was kind of the plan, right?’
Seth’s eyebrows drew together. ‘What are you talking about now?’
‘I heard a rumour.’ My fingers clenched around the wheellock by my side. ‘That the nephilim’s berserker madness wasn’t just genetic bad luck. It was from a poison. I heard when a nephilim becomes too hard to handle, the Grigori has them poisoned. A kind of poison that brings on the berserker madness.’
‘What
are you implying, Lora?’ Seth sounded tired. ‘Get to the point.’
I tapped the wheellock against my leg, thinking hard. ‘It was pretty convenient, you taking me to the Outlands to meet Casper, right about the same time Roman was getting sick. It was perfect, like you were handing me the solution to Roman’s problem on a silver platter. Like maybe everything was a set up from the beginning, with you coming out the hero at the end, and my relationship with Roman severed.’
‘You sound paranoid, Lora.’ That dangerous glint was back in the golden depths of Seth’s eyes. I knew he was worried about something, but I wasn’t sure if it was because I'd just realised how far Seth might go to keep anyone else from loving me, or that I believed him capable of such a devious act.
‘Am I paranoid?’ I whispered. ‘Or am I finally seeing your true face.’
‘I don’t know who has been filling your head with this nonsense about poison, but it has to stop.’ Seth stepped towards me. ‘Trust me to help you, or you don’t. Simple as that.’
My eyes dropped to Nicola. ‘You make it hard to trust you.’
‘I'm doing what’s best,’ Seth said, voice clipped. ‘Like I always do. Like I always will.’
My torn and bloody leg gave an agonising throb and I swayed, grabbing the bars of the cage for support.
‘You need a hospital.’ Seth still sounded angry. ‘I swore I'd help you, and I will.’ He stabbed a finger to his chest. ‘I'm the only one who can help him at this point. You’d do well to remember that.’
His anger was a quiet fury, a hurricane of rage that boiled in his eyes and I nodded warily. Seth might have been madder than hell at my accusation, though I noticed he hadn’t exactly denied it. But I held my tongue. I needed Seth. After the torture Roman had been put through, and knowing I was responsible, I was willing to trade anything to see Roman safe. Even the tattered remains of my friendship with Seth.
Chapter 48
The weather was warm against my skin, the beer cold in my hand. I sat at the wooden table on the veranda of Casper’s new home, my feet comfortably raised up on an esky filled with beer. Someone had made butter biscuits and I had set them on the table with a pitcher of cold water.
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